This invention relates generally to a hand tool formulated to facilitate the precision tuning of pianos and other stringed instruments with a high degree of precision.
One of the problems associated with tuning stringed instruments such as pianos, and the like has been the tendency of the manipulative tool associated with the wire tensioning device to be mechanically so "fast" that over tensioning of the associated piano wire has occurred, and the wire has to thereafter be detensioned and subsequentially retensioned, an iterative process that is inefficient from a time and labor point of view, and therefore needlessly increases the tedium associated with the skilled tuning.
Known prior art devices exist in an attempt to address the above-noted problem, and the following patents reflect the state of the art of which applicant is aware, insofar as these patents appear to be germane to the process at hand.
______________________________________ 360,409 Berner 2,917,961 Madonna 1,026,228 Severy et al. 3,777,611 Madonna 2,254,012 Kudo ______________________________________
Severy et al. teaches the use of a known prior art technique for tuning pianos and the like in which a winding drum (FIG. 3) is adapted to engage a tangent screw (FIG. 4) within a frame portion (FIG. 5) so that a piano wire 12 wound upon the drum can be adjusted by means of manipulating the screw as best shown in FIG. 1.
Similarly, each of the Madonna patents attempt to provide a solution to the long standing problem of precise micro metric tuning of piano strings wherein the peg upon which the piano wire is attached is provided by appropriate gearing to another mechanism the rotation of which operatively manipulates tension on the string.
The patent to Kudo teaches the use of a mechanical tuning device for stringed musical instruments utilizing a worm gear and an associated toothed wheel the interengagment of which provides the ability to rotate the toothed wheel 18 and therefore retension the strings.
The Berner piano tuning pin teaches a device somewhat similar to one of the Madonna patents, and is characterized in that a support block each has plural gearings thereon one for respective individual strings in a piano to be tuned.
All of the known prior art techniques discussed hereinabove share the common disadvantage that the complex gearing associated with micro tuning is integrally formed with the piano, raising the cost of an expensive instrument substantially. None of the devices discussed hereinabove exemplary of the prior art have ever met with a an appreciable degree of success in the marketplace because all of these mechanisms require retrofitting on existing pianos, or required that the piano manufacturer modify the instrument in accordance with the above disclosed tuning directives, an event which has not occurred presumably due to both the extraordinary increase in expense associated with the instrument and the problems with providing clearance within the piano for the plurality of mechanical linkages associated therewith.
By way of contrast, the instant invention is directed to and provides a single tool capable of selective deployment and removal from a conventional tuning peg on existing manufactured pianos which provides the micro metric tuning capabilities sought by the prior art devices but not obtainable thereby. The device according to the instant application can be rapidly and easily deployed from one peg to another, and is suitably configured and fashioned so as to decrease the likelihood of over tensioning a piano wire as conventional pianos are prone to do with the associated pegs, and provides advantages of the prior art in that a single mechanical linkage can be deployed from peg to peg removing the requirement of 88 separate gear assemblies and their associated clearance problems as would be required by the prior art.